Sunday, July 19, 2015

Writing the blog tonight because I am going to go to a scout day camp tomorrow morning to help supervise some boys from our ward. We have had a good week. We started off by going with our sisters and other missionaries in the district to the Hyrum Stake Humanitarian Center and doing service for an hour. It is a unique building that operates several days per week to provide humanitarian goods for use in many places. They make quilts, diapers, hygiene kits, new born kits, and missionary kits. The quilts are sent all over the world and also used locally in women's shelters, and smaller quilts for youth services where young people are separated from families because of issues in homes . The new born kits are sent to third world countries to supply items for young mothers who sometimes leave the hospital with a baby wrapped in newspaper. The new born kits include diapers, and other items for the mothers to use to help their babies stay healthy and warm. The hygiene kits are sent to areas where disasters have taken their ugly tolls and left people with little other than what they are wearing. The kit includes soap, towel, 2 combs, tooth paste, and tooth brushes.The missionary kit is a hygiene kit with at least one white shirt and two ties for missionaries in third world countries who often show up at the mission home with a name tag and Dad's used suit and little else of the world's goods.
Later in the day we met with two sweet elderly sisters who are alone and need some attention. We had a delicious meal of Cornish game hens and the trimmings with a less active family in the tenth ward which included three delightful and bright boys.
Tues I helped a fellow we have kept track of most of our mission. He decided to move back to Hyrum from Logan where he had lived for several months. Hopefully being back in familiar territory he will return to church activity. We also visited with a young lady that is planning to get to the temple soon. We are trying to encourage her to keep that commitment. Wednesday our district meeting was postponed so we used the time to go to the temple. Then we had a very nice meeting with a fairly new couple in the fourteenth ward and talked about family history and missionary work.
Thurs following our district meeting the senior couples had a pot luck luncheon and training meeting at a senior couples home that live near the district meeting chapel. It was a nice afternoon and was great to spend some time with the other senior couples and become better acquainted. We had a very nice visit with an older couple we admire. They were so welcoming and we talked about their neighbors and some of the experiences they have had in our area. He has served as the mayor and she has been in DUP with Ruth for several years. He had just celebrated his 81st birthday a few days before. As we left his wife asked him to pray. It was as if the Lord was sitting right in the room. His prayer was so beautiful and sincere that we felt the blessings of the Lord were truly with us.
Friday we had a couple of visits and then took the rest of the day and took Ruth's sister Jennette and her friend Don with us to the Tabernacle Choir Pioneer Day concert. It was a great concert and a wonderful evening. The soloist was Laura Osnes who recently played Cinderella on Broadway. It was so refreshing to enjoy her music and see her dressed so modestly. So different than what we normally see in the world today.
Sat evening as we were visiting we thought of a sister whose son was baptized just after we began our service as missionaries. We have met with the family and given them new member discussions. The children were with their father and the mother was at home alone. We talked a lot about her life, her trials and her need to be nourished. After we showed her a Daily Bread video she was quite tearful and said she wants to get into a situation where she can feel uplifted and fed by the Spirit. Life can be really hard for some people,she has had many challenges, and we are hoping we can help her find some peace and happiness.

Today has been a rather typical Sunday. We attended both sacrament meetings in our building. We enjoyed seeing many of the people in our neighboring ward and were thrilled to hear the talk and testimony of a neighbor from our ward who just returned Friday night from his mission in Ecuador. Wow, what a powerful testimony and obviously a truly wonderful missionary. We were invited to a neighborhood friend's home who has four children and the youngest son had a birthday and wanted us to have dinner with them after church. They are a great family and even though they have challenges because the parents are divorced, we love spending time with their family.
Following our correlation meeting we met with our senior couple supervisors, then went to a correlation meeting for the Spanish sisters in our area. We were invited to a fireside tonight where the speaker was Sis Dent who was a student at the Cokeville Wyoming grade school when a fellow and his wife came in and took over the school with guns and a bomb. After a frightful time, the bomb blew up but all of the children miraculously escaped. Most had injuries but they were all alive and over time recovered from their injuries. The man and his wife were the only fatalities in the incident. There is a movie out now called "The Cokeville Miracle" produced by T C Christensen which is an excellent movie. He also created the movie "17 Miracles."